Howdy, folks! Really excited here that the weather is shifting into spring, because you know what that means: festivals! We have a few coming up, so here’s a sneak peek of what you might find at our upcoming pop-up shops.

Before we get to that, though, just want to give a shout-out and hearty thanks to our friends at the Lifecycle Building Center. They’re like us, only reusing and redistributing building materials instead of art materials. You know how a person can girl-crush or have a bromance? Well, we do the reuse equivalent of that with the LBC, whatever you may call it. Reuse-mance? Recycrush? I dunno, but you should really reallycheck them out. They’re doing amazing things, to put it mildly, and we’re always super happy to partner with them.

LBC partway through the Ebster gym floor demolition. It’s how they do.

The items below came from a demolition the LBCers were doing at Decatur’s former recreation center by Ebster park. The building was historically one of the last segregated schools (or so I was told), but had been converted into a multi-use recreation center (with a gym) and, on a separate floor, the Beacon Hill Arts Center, which provided low-cost studio space for artists and was the home for several dance troupes, namely Beacon Dance. It was shuttered late last year by the City of Decatur for renovations, hence the demolition. Aside from still having that old-school feel–literally–there was definitely a sense that I was scavenging (well…moreso than usual). So, if you were formerly an artist that occupied the BHAC, and see something here that you left behind, we’ll be happy to return it to you. Otherwise, be assured that your items are going to wind up in equally artistic endeavors. Now, to the goods:

1) Vintage scrapbooks: Just two of them and the pages are blank, but pleasingly yellowed. Also, no plastic anywhere on these things–I get the feeling they were made before the time of photo sheets. Wicked cool hard covers intact!

2) Box of cheesy cloth-type material: I feel like I’ve seen stuff like this used in sculpture work. (Also, truthfully, it’s a little too loosely woven to actually make cheese with, I WOULD KNOW.) If any of you are in need of an excellent mummy costume, well, fyi, there’s a goodly amount of this stuff. Also, I feel like this would be fun to use in a papier-mache project. Anyone else got other ideas? Bueller?

3) Box of burlap: why, hellllllllooooooooo. This, to me, was the Take of the Day. Some are sack-ish, but most are just big ol’ scraps. I know some of you crafters are probably drooling over this photo. Burlap may just be the new map.

4) Slides: alas, they are blank, but that shouldn’t discredit they’re potential. Who wants to have a contest with these? Best idea wins. GO!!!

5) Keys: I, personally, am excited that our key collection is growing. I feel like any creative reuse center worth a hoot has a solid key inventory. Off the top of my head: jewelry trinkets, cool imprint-maker, mix-and-match game if you’re really that diabolical, stage prop, and instrument/sound maker. What do you think?

In addition, we also scored a bunch of games (a couple board ones, a few card ones, and some colorful Jenga pieces), puzzles (don’t know if they’re complete or not, and I’m not even going to try), and some plain cut-out cardboard masks. I got the puzzles and games mostly for the parts, rather than the whole, so I really didn’t concern myself whether they’re all in tact or not. More trinkets! And, teachers, you might be interested in some of those card games and masks, just sayin’.

And, as I mentioned earlier, you can find these and other goods at our upcoming pop-up shops which will be…..Decatur Earth Day Festival April 21st and Decatur Greenfest May 11th. Dag! That’s a ways away! If you find yourself absolutely needing cheesecloth or keys ABSOLUTELY RIGHT NOW, then shoot us an email at creativereuse@wonderroot.org, comment here, or–and we’ll love you for this–ask on our Facebook page, and we’ll make arrangements with you. Til then, stay tuned for more pop-up shop details and, as always, happy reusing!